WHAT ARE THE ETHICAL ISSUES SURROUNDING CANNED HUNTING?

I am a grade eleven student from Adelaide, Australia and for this years school curriculum I am required to research a topic of my own choice and create a 2000 word outcome using several different sources. The topic I have chosen is on the ethical issues surrounding canned hunting as I am extremely passionate about this topic.Lilli Cavill

IntroductionCanned hunting is a practice that occurs in South Africa where lions are bred excessively for the purpose of being hunted as a trophy. It is a legal practice however, there are several ethical issues surrounding this topic. Lionesses at breeding farms are forced to breed excessively, petting zoos cause stress on the animals, people are not treating them humanely and tourists are mislead as to where the lions go when they have out grown the petting zoos. When it comes to hunting, the lion has no chance of evading the hunter and it is not killed ethically. It is argued that canned hunting will increase numbers in the wild, but it is just another way of allowing illegal bones making its way to the Asian bone trade.

Ethical issues surrounding breeding and petting farmsThroughout South Africa, there are approximately 160 breeding farms where lions are purpose bred for the supply of petting farms.Tourists visit these farms to pet, cuddle, feed and take photographs with these animals. Volunteers also come from all over the world hoping to hand raise these lions as part of conservation efforts. Both tourists and volunteers pay money to participate in these activities and believe they are helping protect the lion species in doing so.In these breeding farms, lionesses are forced to breed excessively, producing an unnatural number of cubs. The number of lions born in captivity has increased substantially in the past decade. In the early 2000s there were approximately 2000 lions in captivity, compared with over 6000 today. These figures are significant considering there are fewer then 25,000 remaining in the wild. In these breeding farms a lioness will breed 2-3 litters per year, while in the wild she would only reproduce every second or third year highlighting the ethical issue of over breeding. Selective breeding is another moral concern regarding these farms. Animal behaviourist, Kevin Richardson has visited a number of these breeding farms. He explains that the number of white lions housed in these establishments is an example of the selective breeding practices that take place. This concentration of white lions would never be seen in the wild, indicating its unnatural nature. There are fewer than 300 white lions remaining in the wild therefore breeding farms try and breed as many as they can due to their higher desirability. The main ethical concern surrounding breeding farms is the quantity of lions being produced. There is no concern for the wellbeing of the lions, who are maintained in a highly unnatural environment. Extensive breeding leads to increased stress on the mothers because their natural instincts are to be extremely protective of their young. Additional anxiety is placed on the animals when the newborn cubs are removed from their mother within an hour of being born.This causes significant stress to both the mother and newborn cubs. The intensive lion breeding programs conducted on certain farms raises many ethical concerns regarding the health and well being of these lions and their cubs. After the cubs are taken away from their mothers, they are transferred to petting farms where tourists come and pet, feed, cuddle and walk with the lion cubs. These animals are being constantly handled which can result in stress related illnesses such as vomiting, diarrhoea and hair loss. Because the cubs are no longer with their mother they cannot receive her milk. Resultantly, many are raised on low quality formulas, as the correct products are extremely expensive. This raises ethical concerns around the raising of these cubs in an artificial environment as many face nutritional problems throughout development.Tourists and volunteers that visit these petting farms pay money to participate in activities with the cubs. They are falsely led to believe that they are assisting their conservation by doing so. Cub petting and walking with lions has no conservational benefits whatsoever. The volunteers are often mislead as to what happens to these cubs once they have outgrown the petting zoos. The complete truth is withheld and tourists are told false stories about the lions going to good homes when they reach maturity. However, there aren’t many ‘good homes’ to which these lions can go. One mistruth is that the lions are released into the wild, which is not the case.If a lion raised in captivity was released into the wild it would have no chance of survival, as it has not learnt how to hunt, find a pride for protection or defend itself. Tourists are sometimes told that they go back to the breeding farms and continue breeding, but are not told where they go when these breeding farms run out of space. Often, volunteers are similarly misinformed as to where the lions go after these farms and perpetuate false stories by retelling them to tourists. If they are aware of the truth, many keep quiet so they do not lose their jobs. The falsities told to tourists and volunteers about the purpose of these facilities encourages them to spend their money, raising further ethical concerns regarding captive breeding and petting farms. The ethical issues surrounding a canned huntOnce the lions on the petting farms reach maturity their wild instincts take over, making them too dangerous to be exposed to humans. These lions are then transferred to other farms where wealthy tourists pay thousands of dollars to hunt these animals and possibly take it home as a trophy. This practice is known as canned hunting. Canned hunting refers to the hunting of lions, when the hunter has an unfair advantage to the animal due the limitations placed on it.In most cases, a lion is released within a fenced enclosure while hunters stalk the animals by either luring it or physically tracking it. The lion does not think that humans pose a danger due to their upbringing in captivity. This is the biggest ethical concern of all. It poses the question of whether canned hunting should be allowed in the first place and if it is right to breed an animal for the expressed purpose of hunting in an artificial environment. During a canned hunt the odds are stacked in the favour of the hunter creating a range of ethical issues surrounding this practice. Lions are released from their small enclosure into a larger one prior to the hunt.The time of release can vary from just 96 hours to 3 months prior to the hunt. The enclosure in which the lion is released can be as large as 2500 hectares.While this sounds like the lion has a good chance of evading the hunters, the organisers have methods of finding the lion in as little time as 3 hours. Firstly, because the lions have been in a small enclosure for the majority of their lives they are not used to being in such a large space. Most lions in this situation will panic and move to the boundary of the fence and sit there, as this is the behaviour they are familiar with. Many lions are shot at the fence line during a canned hunt.Another way of drawing out the lion is placing an animal carcass deeper into the enclosure. When the lions feed on this carcass, they expose themselves to the hunters. Hunters are often told that the lions are wild and have just made a kill, raising ethical questions about the misleading circumstances of this practice. In some cases, when a lioness is being hunted her cubs are put in a neighbouring cage so she is lured closer to them and hence closer to the hunter. When the lion is found by the hunter, it often does not think to run away or defend itself as it has been exposed to humans for all of its life. The lions think that the humans won’t harm them or might even feed them.In some cases, they come up to the cars where they are shot.The hunters pursue the animals from a vehicle giving them a huge advantage and leaving the lion with little chance of defending itself. In wild hunts, the hunters will walk on foot so the lion has a better chance of evasion. In these scenarios, lions have often attacked hunters but this happens very rarely in a canned hunt. The lions that are being hunted in canned hunts are sometimes drugged during transportation.They often remain this way when the hunt takes place, affecting their ability to respond. This unfair advantage of the humans presents ethical questions about canned hunting practices as the lions are given no chance of survival.When the lion is killed in a canned hunt, it is rarely a ‘clean’ kill. The lion is often shot several times with death not being instantaneous.The hunters do not want their trophy ruined so they do not like to shoot the lion in the head, which is the quickest and most humane way to kill an animal. Instead they aim for the heart and lung area, which is not an easy target especially since some of these hunters are inexperienced. It will often take five or six shots before the lion is killed, taking a long time for the animal to succumb to its injuries. As time passes, the lion slowly dies in agony.The hunters sometimes choose to use other weapons such as pistols and bows, which are less ethical and humane. The hunters sometimes shoot with particular guns and aim for certain areas to make a more ‘gruesome’ video to post on the internet.In some cases, the lion manages to hide itself after being shot in the enclosure for hours and even days, lying in pain before someone can find it and finish it off.These barbaric killing practices present significant ethical issues around canned hunting. The level of animal cruelty is excessive, suggesting that the banning of this industry is justified. The ethical issues surrounding trophy exportations and the Asian bone tradeOnce the lion has been killed, the animal’s body is used for trophy items such as rugs and wall mounts and the bones are sent to Asia for traditional purposes. However, shipping trophies overseas is highly expensive and there are several ethical issues surrounding exportation. The Asian bone trade imports lion bones from Africa that have been canned hunted.However, many of these bones do not come from captive lions, but from the wild. There are significant challenges around the tracking of bone origins meaning illegal bone trading is easily concealed within the trade of canned hunted animals. The Chinese hunt and kill tigers and use their bones to make traditional “Tiger Bone Wine”, which is used as a medicine. As tigers are becoming critically endangered, the Chinese are turning to African lions.They believe that the wild lions’ bones are more ‘potent’ than those of captive-bred animals.The practice of exporting canned hunted bones to Asia raises ethical problems regarding the illegal trade of wild lion bones. While some argue that canned hunting prevents the poaching wild lions, illegal hunting is in fact increasing as poachers flood the Asian Market with wild lion bones.Conclusion Canned hunting is a legal practice however due to the evidence found, there is enough to state that the ban of canned hunting should be justified. The lions are not treated humanely when it comes to the petting farms, breeding farms and hunting the animal. The animal is given no chance of survival due to physical and mental constraints. People are mislead as to where the lions go and when the lions reach the bone market, there is no way of telling if the hunt was legal or illegal. References·Campaign Against Canned Hunting, 2013, Cub Petting, CACH, South Africa, viewed 27th February 2015, http://www.cannedlion.org/cub-petting.html(CACH 2013)·Barkham, P 2013, ‘Canned hunting: the lions bred for slaughter’, online video, 3 June, viewed 28 February 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jun/03/canned-hunting-lions-bred-slaughter (Barkham 2013)·The Lion Whisperer 2013, television broadcast, National Geographic Wild, 13 April. Produced by Gilles De Maistre (The Lion Whisperer 2013) ·Richardson, K 2009, Part of the Pride: my life among the big cats of Africa, St. Martins Press, New York, N.Y. (Richardson 2009) ·Special Assignment 2014, television broadcast, SABC, South Africa, 1st April. Presented by Ashraf Garda (Special Assignment 2014) ·(pers comm, Donalea Patman 13 April 2015) ·(pers comm, Bev Pervan 28 March 2015) ·Wilson, G 2014, Breeding Factory for Trophy hunters, viewed 25 March 2015 http://www.cannedlion.org/seaview.html (Wilson 2014) ·(pers comm, Chris Mercer 27 March 2015) ·Dyer, D 2015, ‘Canned hunting is not protecting wild lions!’, The ecologist, web log post, 25 March, viewed 1st April 2015, http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2806457/canned_hunting_is_not_protecting_wild_lions.html (Dyer 2015) ·Borchert, P 2013, ‘Is walking with lions good for conservation? Probably not.’, Africa Geographic, web blog post, 3 July, viewed 23 March 2015 http://africageographic.com/blog/walking-with-lions-good-conservation-probably-not/ (Borchert 2013)·Turner, J 2014, 21 most asked questions about white lions answered!, Global White Lion Trust, UK, viewed 20 April 2015, http://whitelions.org/white-lion/faqs/ (Turner 2014) ·Steyn, P 2015, ‘Is Captive Lion Hunting Really Helping to Save the Species?’, National Geographic, web log post, 5 May, viewed 5 May 2015, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/05/150504-lions-trophy-hunting-tiger-ban-south-africa-australia-cites/ (Steyn 2015) ·Dateline 2013, television broadcast, SBS ONE, 26 November. Presented by Evan Williams (Dateline 2013)·Wood J n.d., Canned Hunting- Can it!, Jason Wood MP, Berwick VIC, viewed 10 April 2015, http://jasonwood.com.au/issues/canned-hunting/ (Wood n.d.) ·Campaign Against Canned Hunting n.d., Lion Trophies, CACH, South Africa, viewed 28 February 2015, http://www.cannedlion.org/lion-trophies.html (CACH n.d.) ·Campaign Against Canned Hunting n.d., Lion Bones, CACH, South Africa, viewed 28 February 2015, http://www.cannedlion.org/lion-bones.html (CACH n.d.) ·Campaign Against Canned Hunting n.d., Lion Walks, CACH, South Africa, viewed 1 March 2015 http://www.cannedlion.org/lion-walks.html (CACH n.d.)·Westwood, A 2015, ‘Conservations biggest con job’, Mail and Guardian, web blog post, 20 March, viewed 10 April 2015 http://mg.co.za/article/2015-03-20-conservations-biggest-con-job (Westwood 2015)·Macleod, F 2013, ‘Officials turn a blind eye to the smuggling of wild lions’, Oxpeckers, web blog post, 12 September, viewed 15 April 2015, http://oxpeckers.org/2013/12/officials-turn-a-blind-eye-to-the-smuggling-of-wild-lions/ (Macleod 2013)

This registered public benefit organization has been approved for purposes of section 18A of the income tax act, and donations will therefore be tax deductible in the hands of the donors.